Bali Nine clemency denied
Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran has lost a last-ditch plea for presidential clemency, which was his final legal avenue to avoid an Indonesian firing squad.
Sukumaran, 33, received the news on Wednesday at Bali’s Kerobokan prison, where he has been on death row since his 2006 conviction over a plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Sydney.
Reports that fellow Bali Nine member and death row inmate Andrew Chan, 30, had also lost his clemency bid have not been confirmed.
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The pair first applied for clemency to previous president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, having exhausted other legal avenues to spare their lives.
When Dr Yudhoyono’s tenure ended, the decision fell to new president Joko Widodo, who has adopted a hardline approach to drugs and drug smugglers.
Referring to a “drug emergency” in Indonesia, Mr Joko said in December he would “never give clemency” in drugs cases.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed Sukumaran’s clemency rejection, saying Australia’s consul-general in Bali visited him at Kerokoban on Wednesday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government opposed the death penalty and would continue to advocate on Sukumaran’s behalf.
“We will make the same kind of representations the Indonesian government makes about its nationals when they are facing the death penalty in other countries,” she said on Thursday.
“We will continue to make representations at the highest level and we will not rest until we have secured that.”
But Ms Bishop stressed that Sukumaran was subject to the laws of a sovereign nation.
“We will do what we can as a government but there are limits on it.”
Sukumaran’s Australian lawyer, Julian McMahon, told News Corp Australia he had not ruled out going back to court.
He said Mr Joko’s rejection of all clemency bids in drug cases could breach the rule of law.